Work From Home? Here's What You Can Actually Deduct

Home-office deductions are one of the most misunderstood parts of the South African tax system — mostly because the rules genuinely are stricter than people expect. Here's what actually qualifies, and how the math works.

Who qualifies

SARS requires that you meet all of the following before you can claim home-office expenses:

1. The area you're claiming for is specifically equipped for work (a desk and computer in the corner of a bedroom generally isn't enough on its own — it needs to function as your regular workspace).
2. You use that area regularly and exclusively for work — not the family dining table that doubles as an office at 6pm.
3. If you're a salaried employee (not commission-based or self-employed), you must work from home for more than half your total working hours in the tax year, or your employment contract must require it.

If you only occasionally work from home, or your employer provides you with an office you simply choose not to use, you don't qualify — this is one of the most common reasons a home-office claim gets flagged.

The pro-rata calculation

You can't deduct your full rent or bond interest — only the portion that reflects the size of your dedicated work area relative to your whole home. The standard method:

(Area of home office ÷ Total area of home) × Qualifying expenses = Deductible amount

Qualifying expenses typically include: rent (or bond interest, not the capital repayment), rates and taxes, cleaning costs, and a portion of electricity. Internet and phone costs are usually apportioned differently — based on actual business-use percentage rather than floor area, since they're not tied to physical space.

A worked example

If your home office is 12m² in a 120m² home (10%), and your monthly rent is R12,000, your deductible rent portion is R1,200/month, or R14,400 for the year. Add the equivalent 10% of your rates, and a reasonable business-use percentage of your internet bill, and that's your total home-office deduction for the year.

Receipts to keep

• Lease agreement or bond statement
• Municipal rates and electricity bills for the full tax year
• A simple floor plan or measurement showing the work area's size relative to the home
• Internet/phone bills if claiming a business-use portion

Keep these for five years — SARS can (and does) request supporting documents for home-office claims specifically, since it's an area they audit closely. When you upload these documents to Tax Chommie, our AI checks the figures against SARS's own thresholds and flags anything that looks unusually high before it goes anywhere near your return.